Monica has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, including over 10 million units in the United States alone.[3][6] With a career lasting over 15 years, she became the first artist to top the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.[7] In 2010, Billboard listed Monica at number 24 on its list of the Top 50 R&B and Hip Hop Artists of the past 25 years.[8]

Monica was born in Atlanta, Georgia on October 24, 1980. She is the only daughter of Marilyn Best, a former church singer and Delta Air Lines customer service representative, and M.C. "Billy" Arnold Jr., a mechanic working for an Atlanta freight company.[9] She has a younger brother, Montez (born in 1983), half brother Jermond Grant on her father's side,[10] and two maternal half-brothers, Tron and Cypress.[11] Monica also is a cousin of record producer Polow da Don,[12] and relative-in-law to rapper Ludacris through her mother's second marriage to Reverend Edward Best, a Methodist minister.[13]

At the age of two, Monica followed in her mother's footsteps with regular performances at the Jones Hill Chapel United Methodist Church in Marilyn's hometown Newnan, Georgia.[13] While growing up in the modest circumstances of a single-parent home after her parents' 1984 separation and 1987 divorce, Monica continued training herself in singing and became a frequent talent-show contestant, winning over 20 local singing competitions throughout her early teenage years.[11] At 10, she became the youngest member of Charles Thompson and the Majestics, a traveling 12-piece gospel choir.[10]

In 2000, Monica made her film debut in the third drama from MTV Films, Love Song, as Camille Livingston, a young woman torn between the life her parents have planned for her and the world she experiences after meeting a musician from the wrong side of the tracks. The film debut the song "What My Heart Says" with promotion of her third album All Eyez on Me (2002). The film was released on April 30, 2002 and in Felicity (2001) and American Dreams (2003) playing Mary Wells, singing "My Guy".

In 2000, Monica contributed chorus vocals for "I've Got to Have It", a collaboration with Jermaine Dupri and rapper Nas. Released as the Big Momma's House theme song, the song saw minor success in the United States only. The following year, she released the Ric Wake production track "Just Another Girl", recorded for the Down to Earth soundtrack, as a single. A year later, Monica channeled much of her heavily media-discussed experiences into the production of her third studio album, All Eyez on Me, her first release on mentor Clive Davis newly founded J Records label. "I just wanted to give the people back something that had personal passion, instead of just, 'Oh, let's dance to this record'," she said about the issues worked into the tracks.[4] The first single "All Eyez on Me," a Rodney Jerkins-produced R&B-dance track, saw minor to moderate success on the international charts but failed to enter the higher half of the U.S. BillboardHot 100 chart.[4] A follow-up song, "Too Hood", also got a lukewarm response and as a result, the album's tentative release was pushed back several times.[4] "I don't think people wanted to hear a big fun record from me, after knowing all the things that I had personally experienced," Monica second-guessed her new material which saw both early and heavy bootlegging via internet at that time.[4]

After the Japan-wide release of All Eyez on Me, Monica was asked to substantially reconstruct the record with a host of new producers, and as a result she re-entered recording studios to start work with songwriters Kanye West, Jazze Pha, Andre "mrDEYO" Deyo, Bam & Ryan and Dupri – replacing executive producerMissy Elliott.[22] Finally released in June 2003, After the Storm debuted at number one on Billboard`s Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, and on top of the official Billboard 200, with sales of 186,000 copies emerging as Monica's first and only number-one album to date. It eventually received a gold certification, and has sold over one million copies domestically.[18] Media reception of the CD was generally enthusiastic, with the Allmusic saying the album "has all the assuredness and smart developments that should keep Monica's younger longtime followers behind her — all the while holding the ability to appeal to a wider spectrum of R&B and hip-hop fans."[23] The album's lead single, Elliott-penned "So Gone", was one of Monica's biggest commercial successes in years, becoming her first top ten single since 1999's "Angel of Mine". In addition, it reached the top position of the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks and Hot Dance Club Play charts.[24] Subsequently, After the Storm spawned another three singles, with final single "U Should've Known Better" reaching number nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[25]

2006–2010: The Makings of Me, Still Standing, and reality television[edit]

In August 2008, Monica appeared in the Peachtree TV reality show special Monica: The Single which tracked the recording of the song "Still Standing" for her same-titled sixth studio album.[31] The following year, she lent her voice to the ballad "Trust," a duet with Keyshia Cole, that peaked in the top five on Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and joined the cast of Rockmond Dunbar's drama film Pastor Brown.[32] In 2010, with the success of the 2008 one-hour special, Monica joined the production of the BET network for her own series Monica: Still Standing, producing a spin-off her Peachtree show, containing the same concept. It focused on searching for a hit single for the album release and balancing her personal life of being a full-time mother and troubled past. The premiere and encore episode garnered 3.2 million total viewers, while the show itself was made the second highest series debut in BET history behind the debut of Tiny & Toya,[33] and was given a B rating by Entertainment Weekly.[34]

Featuring production by Stargate, Ne-Yo, and Polow da Don, Still Standing was released in March 2010 and garnered a generally positive response by critics, who perceived its sound as "a return to the mid-'1990s heyday" of contemporary R&B,[35] The album debuted atop on Billboard '​s Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, and number two on the Billboard 200 with opening week sales of 184,000 copies, becoming her highest-charting album in years. Lead single "Everything to Me" scored Monica her biggest chart success since 2003's "So Gone", reaching the top position of the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks charts for seven weeks. The album was certified gold by the RIAA with domestic shipments of 500,000 copies within a single month.[36] With it success, the album and "Everything to Me" were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, presented at the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011.[37] In March 2010, it was announced that Monica and Hill had split in October 2009, surrounding rumors that he cheated.[38] Monica and NBA player Shannon Brown met in June 2010 when while they shot her music video for her second single "Love All Over Me."[39] On November 22, 2010, Monica married Brown in a secret ceremony at their Los Angeles home,[40] follow by a second wedding in front of close family on July 9, 2011.[41] Also in 2010, Monica joined Trey Songz on his Passion, Pain & Pleasure Tour, her first North American concert tour in ten years.[42]

In 2012, Monica began work on her eighth studio album. Yet untitled, Monica announced that she would be teaming with producers Missy Elliott, Rico Love, Jim Jonsin, Stargate, Mike WiLL Made It, Miguel, Polow Da Don, and Red Styles on the album.[52] On May 12, 2013, it was announced that she and husband NBA player Shannon Brown were expecting their first child together. She gave birth to their daughter, Laiyah Brown, on September 3, 2013.[53] In October 2013, Monica appeared on the soundtrack of Malcolm D. Lee's Christmas comedy-drama The Best Man Holiday with her rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."[54] On July 29, 2014, Monica premiered a snippet of a Missy Elliott–produced song, nicknamed "I Love Him", via her official Instagram account. Additionally, Monica revealed she would be working with Elliott's childhood friend Timbaland and protégée Jazmine Sullivan.[55]

Monica's career came to a slow down in 1999 due to relationship problems with her ex-boyfriend Jarvis Weems.[4] On July 2000, the couple were together at the graveside of Weems's brother, who had died in an automobile accident at age 25 in 1998, when Weems, without warning, put a gun to his head and committed suicide.[4] "Afterward, I felt, 'What else could I have done?' You replay that situation over and over and you switch it around: Maybe if I had said this, or if I would have done that,'" she said in an interview with the The Cincinnati Enquirer the following year. "It's just something that it's never possible for me to go back and change."[4]

Monica met rapper Rodney "Rocko" Hill, a former SWA officer and real estate manager, shortly after her ex-boyfriend Jarvis Weems's suicide in 2000, a time which she described as her "weakest."[56] While the couple soon began dating in fall of the same year, they ended their relationship in 2004. A few months later, Monica and Hill revived their relationship and she became pregnant with their first child. On May 21, 2005, she gave birth to their first son, Rodney Ramone Hill III.[56] Monica and Hill became engaged once again on Christmas Eve 2007, just a few days prior to the birth of their second child on January 8, 2008. The son was named Romelo Montez Hill, named after Monica's younger brother.[57] The two later parted ways.

In June 2010, Monica met NBA player Shannon Brown when looking for someone to play the love interest in her video for "Love All Over Me".[39] Monica later announced her engagement to Brown via her Twitter account, posting a photo of a rose-cut diamond ring.[58] On November 22, 2010, the couple married in a secret ceremony at their Los Angeles home. The marriage, however, did not become a matter of public record until January 21, 2011, when Brown told the Hip-Hop Non-Stop TV-Show.[59] They had a second wedding ceremony for family and friends in July 2011.[60] In September 2013, Monica gave birth to her third child, Laiyah Shannon Brown.